Fuel prices condemned despite fall

Petrol prices have fallen but drivers are still being short-changed, according to the AA.

Published: 01:14, Fri, November 16, 2012

The AA has urged the Government to do more to tackle the high price of fuel [PA]

Average petrol prices have gone down from 138.95p a litre in mid October to 135.08p now, with diesel dropping from 143.74p a litre to 141.89p.

But the fall in wholesale petrol prices across Europe should have knocked UK pump prices down by 10p to 11p a litre, the AA said.

The AA added that despite the threat of an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation of the road fuel market, "conditions that led to drivers and businesses being short-changed at the pump in the spring have happened again".

The AA said that UK drivers were also suffering again from "price postcode lottery" where motorists in one area can be charged as much as 5p a litre more than drivers a few miles away.

On average, the cheapest petrol at the moment is in Yorkshire and Humberside (134.3p a litre) and the most expensive is in south-east England at 135.7p. Yorkshire and Humberside also has the cheapest diesel (141.0p) with Northern Ireland the most expensive (142.6p).

Motorists received another blow earlier this week when Labour's Commons motion to have the planned January 3p-a-litre fuel duty rise deferred was defeated.

However there is speculation that Chancellor George Osborne will announce a postponement of the rise in his autumn statement next month.

AA president Edmund King said: "It should beggar belief that, after the trauma of high fuel prices in the spring, the same thing should happen again six months later. But we are talking about the fuel industry.

"Recent political focus has been on the January fuel duty increase, either ignoring or unaware that duty's ugly sister, unrestrained wholesale prices, has been running rampant in the fuel market."